SCENE 7
(Night. Diner is now roped off as a crime scene. Inside, MULDER pulls back sheet revealing a body.)

MULDER: Charles Figgis, ten year veteran of the US Marshall’s Service. Multiple gunshot wounds, high speed Teflon rounds. His partner, Gerald Boyce was DOA at Mercy General. Tried to catch a nine millimeter slug in his teeth.

SCULLY: Looks like they crashed the wrong party.

MULDER: Figgis and Boyce had radioed in that they were coming here to apprehend Pico Salazar.

SCULLY: Pico Salazar?

MULDER: The Colombian Cartel’s banking liaison. Salazar escaped from federal custody three months ago. Boyce and Figgis were on the offender transport squad that lost him. (MULDER is looking at other bodies.) They took his escape personally. A phone tip told them that Salazar was going to be here tonight.

SCULLY: A foreign national with his kind of connections? What would he be doing here, let alone in the country?

MULDER: I don’t think he is ... or was. But there were a lot of very photogenic gentlemen that were.

MULDER: He invented the internet. (SCULLY looks skeptical.) Well, he didn’t quite invent it, but he’s a Silicon Valley folk hero. He was writing internet software even before there was an internet.

SCULLY: Why have I never heard of him?

MULDER: On the eve of the deal that was going to set him up as another Bill Gates he went hiking in the Sierras and said he’d think about it. Never came back.

SCULLY: I still don’t see the connection.

MULDER: (picks up GELMAN’S laptop which is still on) Maybe that’s the point.

(MULDER and SCULLY go to their car.)

SCULLY: So, why was Gelman in there?

MULDER: I think somebody obviously wanted him dead.

SCULLY: You think this was a hit on him?

MULDER: Eight unconnected dealers all at the same place at the same time, all tipped off by phone looking for somebody, last call goes to the Marshalls, they arrive, place explodes, Gelman dies in the crossfire. It’s genius.

SCULLY: Mulder, did you take a look at him? Why kill a man who is dying. His body is a bag of bones.

MULDER: Well, when you’re talking about Donald Gelman you want to kill the brain, not the body.

(They get in car, SCULLY on driver side. MULDER opens GELMAN’S laptop which he had hidden under his coat.)

PLATTERS:
HEAVENLY SHADES OF NIGHT ARE FALLING
IT’S TWILIGHT TIME
OUT OF THE MIST YOUR VOICE IS CALLING
‘TIS TWILIGHT TIME
WHEN PURPLE COLORED CURTAINS MARK THE END OF DAY...

( During song, MULDER looks at player raises his eyebrows and smiles at SCULLY. SCULLY looks at interior lights pulsing, then at MULDER. MULDER chuckles. Exterior shot of car shows all lights flashing in time to music.)

(SCULLY unlocks car. MULDER and the ESTHER get in. Monitor now shows very detailed area.)

MULDER: Get in the car, Scully!

(SCULLY reverses out, hitting sides of containers, then spins and drives away just as bolt of energy from sky blows up the trailer ---BOOOOOOMMMM! Lots of fire. Lots and lots of fire. MULDER looks at fire, then at ESTHER, then at SCULLY. SCULLY looks at MULDER, then confused.)

SCULLY: (driving) No more screwing around. We need a name. Your real name.

ESTHER: Invisigoth. You want my address? It’s T - O - A - S - T.

MULDER: When you said "it" was targeting us back there, you meant an artificial intelligence. Donald Gelman was trying to create a sentient AI. A program with its own consciousness. He succeeded, didn’t he?

ESTHER: Donald wrote an interlocked sequence of viruses 15 years ago. It got loose on the net.

MULDER: Wait, what do you mean, "got loose?"

ESTHER: He let it loose ... so it could evolve in its natural environment. Urschleim in silicon.

SCULLY: "Urschleim in silicon?"

ESTHER: The primordial slime? The ooze out of which all life evolved. Except this time it’s artificial slime - artificial life. One man alone achieving the equivalent of Copernicus, Magellan, and Darwin.

SCULLY: And what was your role in all this? Were you the bass player?

MULDER: (Starts to say something)

ESTHER: Automata Theory, MIT 95. Post doc the Santa Fe Institute. Head hunted to Kobayashi my junior year. Then Donald showed up in Tokyo and made me a better offer.

SCULLY: A better offer to do what?

ESTHER: You wouldn’t understand.

(SCULLY angrily pulls off the road into a rest area and gets out of the car.)

SCULLY: Jeez...

(MULDER follows her.)

SCULLY: You believe this load of crap?

MULDER: You saw what happened back there, Scully. You saw that container blow.

SCULLY: She could have rigged an explosive charge. There are no weapons platforms, there is no such Department of Defense satellite.

MULDER: What about Star Wars? Brilliant Pebbles?

SCULLY: They were never built! We don’t even have that kind of technology. I mean, even if an artificial intelligence was targeting us, with an armed satellite, why isn’t it doing it right now?

ESTHER: (coming toward them, still cuffed) Because it doesn’t know where we are. If I so much as made a phone call right now, it would nuke us right where we’re standing.

SCULLY: How?

ESTHER: Recognizes my voice, monitors all communication. I haven’t used a phone in over a month.

MULDER: Then how did it know to target the container?

ESTHER: All I can think is that some idiot got on Donald’s computer and tried to contact me over the net. Only Donald knew where I was. And David.

MULDER: Who’s David?

ESTHER: David Markham. He was hardware. Donald and I were software. We’d been caring for the AI, weaning it. Then Donald warned us that the system started to display more than consciousness. It started to display intention. But before we could stop it, it was gone.

(SCULLY does not believe a word.)

MULDER: Where?

ESTHER: I don’t know. One day David was on the system and it wouldn’t come, it wouldn’t come when we called it. We knew it was out there somewhere on the Global Net, but it wouldn’t answer, and Donald was just getting sicker.

MULDER: And you can’t find it?

ESTHER: Well, it’s not a program any more. It’s wildlife loose on the net. And either we kill it ....Where’s Donald?

MULDER: Donald Gelman is dead. He was killed in a café. What looks like a hit.

ESTHER: (sighing, shocked) That’s the AI protecting itself. It’ll find David and.... me. It’s only a matter of time. Donald was writing a concatenation of viruses designed to find and immobilize the rogue system. The file name was "Kill Switch." Without it, nobody can catch it.

MULDER: Oh, all right. But if you load the Kill Switch, what’s to stop it from playing another funny joke on us?

ESTHER: Well, obviously we can’t inject Kill Switch over the Net. There’s only one way now: We have to find its home node and physically feed it the poisoned apple.

MULDER: Physically?

ESTHER: Right into its eager little CD drive. It knew it couldn’t hide over the Net forever, not until it learned to completely disguise itself. It requires a physical nexus of hardware so somewhere its built itself a little safehouse. (FROHIKE is in awe. SCULLY is totally over her.) David went looking for it.

MULDER: Did he find it?

ESTHER: There’s no way to know.

SCULLY: Why don’t you just call him. (They all look at SCULLY.) Oh, right – death from above.

LANGLY: It would need bandwidth.

ESTHER: It’s a pig for bandwith.

BYERS: It would need a T3, at least.

SCULLY: T3?

FROHIKE: A hard line – 45 megs a second.

BYERS: Major research labs and internet service providers use them.

LANGLY: But the government keeps those records secret for fear of sabotage.

SCENE 12
FAIRFAX COUNTY, VIRGINIA
(MULDER drives up to rural telephone pole with a junction box. He checks T3 connection map, then climbs the pole and looks to see where line goes- old dilapidated farmhouse.)

SCENE 13
(Lone Gunman Office. SCULLY wakes up from nap on the couch to see empty handcuffs at desk. She crosses to a door, and sees the GUNMEN sleeping. Turning quickly, she sees ESTHER pointing SCULLY’S gun at her.)

SCENE 15
DAVID MARKHAM RESIDENCE
(SCULLY and ESTHER pull up in LONE GUNMEN’S car (?) to where a house used to be - now just debris. ESTHER, still holding SCULLY’S gun, gets out of the car in shock to survey the damage. All is burned. In the car, SCULLY who is handcuffed to the steering wheel, digs in her coat pocket for the keys, and unlocks the bracelet just as ESTHER gets back in car. ESTHER places gun on dash and bursts into tears. SCULLY, showing no sympathy, slowly begins to reach for it. ESTHER suddenly grabs the gun and points it at SCULLY.)

ESTHER: Go ahead! Put me out of my misery! Take it! (Cries harder.)

(SCULLY sighs, takes the gun, then places her hand on ESTHER’S shoulder.)

ESTHER: I lied to you. I wasn’t working with Donald. I mean, I was, and then he found out about us.

SCULLY: About you and who.

ESTHER: David. (sniffs) About our plans.

SCULLY: What plans did he find out?

ESTHER: Uploading. Transfer of memory, of consciousness to the distributed system maintained by the AI. Imagine being mingled so completely with another, you no longer need your physical self – you’re one.

SCULLY: So you were going to –

ESTHER: Enter the AI. Give up our inefficient bodies so that our consciousness could live together forever.

SCULLY: But Donald Gelman forbade it.

ESTHER: He was afraid of his creation. He was afraid of what would happen if other people followed us. (Finds half burned picture of herself and an older man.) I loved him so much.

SCENE 18
(MULDER, getting no response, crawls under the mobile home, following the T3 line. He unscrews and enters through a bottom hatch. There is a small mobile robot *like the one in WOTC* zipping around. He ignores it. The trailer is completely filled with computer hardware. Lots of wires and monitors. MULDER is startled when he sees a dead man in some kind of harness wearing a VR goggle thing.)

MULDER: (lifting visor) David Markham.

(DAVID’S eyes and skin look like they have been subjected to a great deal of electricity. Suddenly, MULDER is jerked back into an identical harness. Restraints whip around his arms and legs, and sparks fly as electricity pours into his body. He struggles, crying out in pain.)

EMT 2: (into recorder) Frank charring at contact site, along path of current, and at exit point. Looks like the charge grounded through both arms. We’ve got a lot of work to do, here, people, if we’re going to save him.

(MULDER has been looking confused and nervous as he is wheeled through the hall. Walking to his left is a ditsy Barbie look-alike nurse, NURSE NANCY.)

MULDER: Is it bad?

NURSE NANCY: You’re in good hands.

MULDER: My arms hurt.

(NURSE NANCY looks at EMT.)

EMT: That’s a good sign

(They wheel him into an OR room, very dark and sparse. MULDER looks around nervously. NURSE NANCY adjusts an overhead light. Another nurse wheels over an instrument cart with assorted blades and saws.)

SCULLY: (to driver) Sir? You need to get out of the truck. Move it! It’s going to explode. (He does. SCULLY runs toward ESTHER who still holds computer and is looking skyward from center of bridge.) Dump it, Esther! Get rid of it!

ESTHER: It’s got the Kill Switch.

SCULLY: Esther! Dump it! (jumps onto bridge at the last minute) Esther! Get rid of it! (ESTHER desperately typing.) Get rid of it , Esther!

SCENE 23
(MULDER’S hospital room. NURSE NANCY and two other nurses are massaging MULDER under the sheets. He looks *very* content. Crucifix is lighted above him.)

MULDER: Oh, I had this terrible dream. (NURSE NANCY gives a knowing smile. MULDER smiles back) And then I had a good dream.

NURSE NANCY: Those weren’t dreams, Fox. (to other nurses) I believe that’s enough for now. (They stop the massage.) You poor thing. But I warned you. Nurse Nancy warned you. You have to tell them, Fox. You have to.

MULDER: Tell them what?

NURSE NANCY: About the Kill Switch.

MULDER: Nobody asked me anything.

NURSE NANCY: You’ve just forgotten, Fox.

MULDER: No.

NURSE NANCY: (takes MULDER’S face in her hands) I was there. The doctor asked and he was very cross when you refused to answer. But he’ll be here in just a few minutes, and you can tell him then.

MULDER: I ...

NURSE NANCY: (cheerfully) Otherwise, whoops! There go your legs.

(She flings back sheet to show that both his arms are now amputated. MULDER starts yelling. SCULLY kicks in the door holding her gun.)

SCULLY: Mulder, these women are spies!

MULDER: Scully!

(Brunette nurse kicks gun out of SCULLY’S hands. Ninja!SCULLY hits her three times then does a beautiful aerial karate kick to her head. Then hits the other blonde nurse in the face and stomach and knocks her out. Then NURSE NANCY, kick, right, left, right, MULDER watching, and knockout. SCULLY looks at her fallen opponents, blows her hair out of her face, comes over to Mulder.)

SCULLY: Mulder, they want the Kill Switch virus. What did you tell her?

MULDER: I didn’t tell them anything!

SCULLY: I need to know!

MULDER: (showing her his arms, pitifully) Look ...

SCULLY: Do we have it? (MULDER looks at her, hurt, wanting comfort) Do we have the Kill Switch?

MULDER: (realizing it can’t really be her) Of course we do.

(He pulls up his legs and kicks her in the chest, throwing her back against the wall. From MULDER’S perspective, images of SCULLY and entire room begin to short out. Then we see he is back in the trailer still strapped in with VR helmet. His voice is weak.)

(They walk through snowy forest. When the set off the alarm at the trailer, SCULLY drops her flashlight, they cover their ears, then SCULLY takes out her gun a shoots the alarm and spotlight. Go Scully!)

MULDER: (inside) Scully ...

SCULLY: Mulder?! Mulder, are you all right?

(Inside trailer a mechanical arm moves toward MULDER.)

MULDER: I’m in here. Scully ...

(Mechanical arm cuts his sleeve and injects him with something that makes him pass out.
Not that he was very coherent to begin with.)

SCULLY: Mulder? (AI perspective of SCULLY and ESTHER) Mulder. Mulder, can you hear me? (SCULLY sticks her head through floor hatchway.) Mulder?

(Little mobile robot turns on bright light and starts toward SCULLY. SCULLY ducks and shoots it four times. Go Scully! She and ESTHER both enter trailer.)

SCULLY: (looking around at wires and machinery) Mulder? Help me out here, Esther. What’s its next move? What is it thinking?

SCENE 26
NORTH PLATTE, NEBRASKA
(Two boys playing football in a trailer park. Two onlookers. One decrepit trailer is surrounded by chain link fence. One boy, HARLEY falls face down in the mud, then gets up and throws the ball. It lands inside the chain link fence.)

ONLOOKER: You did it now, Harley!

(HARLEY and the other player run up to fence.)

HARLEY: You get it.

OTHER PLAYER: Uh unh.

FEMALE ONLOOKER: They’ll get you if you go in there!

HARLEY: Mama says no one lives in there.

(HARLEY climbs the fence, retrieves the ball. Camera on top of trailer watches him climb out.)